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Here’s everything on the subject of beer and pubs that grabbed our attention in the last week, along with a couple of more tangential items that nonetheless shine a light.

Reuben Gray has been considering the health of RateBeer from an Irish perspective and concludes that it might be looking a touch peaky:Galway Bay’s Of Foam and Fury has 121 reviews at the moment on Ratebeer. It’s the highest rated Irish beer on the platform. That wouldn’t be too bad except the same beer on Untappd has a whopping*2,726 Ratings at the time of writing this. An interesting thing to point out is that this beer is number two on Untappd for Ireland with GBB’s 200 Fathoms beating it to first place whereas on Ratebeer, 200 Fathoms gets spot number two.
Not exactly about beeer: Jay Brooks*at Brookston Beer Bulletin*has written a long reflection on the subject of pretzels, a snack closely associated with beer in Germany and the US, with lots of historical information. The best bits are his personal reminiscences, though:One of my favorite memories as a child was being in downtown Reading with my stepfather. He took me down a side street, almost an alley, and I could smell baking pretzels. I think it may have been Unique Pretzels, which was Dad’s favorite brand, but I’m not sure. At any rate, it was a stone building, and my Dad went inside, while I peered in from the sidewalk, and could see the stone oven inside, with workers there using a large flat paddle to pull out freshly baked pretzels from it. Soon after, my father reappeared outside, handing me a hot, crunchy pretzel straight from that oven. Although I’m sure I’ve romanticized it over the years, that must have been the best-tasting pretzel I’ve ever had.
Also not about beer: for Architectural Review*Catharine Rossi*writes about the resurgence of interest in*‘craft’ in recent years. It’s full of light-bulb lines and ideas:With its ethical associations of authenticity and trusted provenance, and its offer of a hands-on engagement in a hands-off economy, craft offers a tangible moral compass in uncertain times. Making craft or buying goods from craftspeople enables a meaningful relationship with the material world… As the sociologist Sennett argued in The Craftsman (2008): ‘craftsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake’
(You can view three articles on the AR*site free per month so click carefully and maybe save it to Pocket or a similar reader app if you use one.)Alec Latham continues to find interesting angles from which to approach beer. This week, he tasted a tropical-fruity double IPA from Cloudwater alongside (a) the syrup from a tin of Del Monte fruit salad and (b) a carton of Um-Bongo fruit drink. It’s sort of a joke, but also not:In a glass*[the Del Monte syrup] actually looks attractive. There’s a gleam to the liquid – almost a sparkle – a bit like pearls. Some tiny suspended fruit particles also put me in mind of things trapped in amber… On the nose it’s horrible. It’s like a Care Bear’s fart or one of those odd “fruit” scented rubbers we used to have at primary school (by rubber I mean eraser – the school wasn’t THAT bad). I go back to inhale from the DIPA and by comparison, the beer now has a mustard aroma.
From*Ed*at*Ed’s Beer Blog we get a bit of what amounts to gossip about the CAMRA Revitalisation project:[The]*national executive seem to have had kittens when they saw the project’s recommendations. OK, that wasn’t exactly how it was put but CAMRA Kremlinologists can draw conclusions from the fact that the current national executive decided to delay any decisions until 2018, and three of the Revitalisation committee have decided to stand for election to the national executive.The Old Packhorse which has a Thai restaurant in the back room.Here’s one from a couple of weeks back that we missed out of last week’s round-up: why on earth do so many British pubs serve Thai food? For*Lucky Peach*Catherine Lamb*tells the story:Gerry began managing The Churchill Arms thirty-two years ago. During his first two years as manager, the pub served British classics at lunch and meat-and-potatoes dishes at night. One day a Thai chef named Ben (yes, Ben has a longer Thai name, which Gerry can’t remember and still can’t pronounce) walked in with a proposal: he wanted to take over the Churchill’s kitchen and cook Thai food…*Gerry began receiving calls from other pub owners asking him for his secret—and Gerry, who loves a good story, told them everything.
(Via @Will_Hawkes.)And, finally, Charlie Worthington, AKA ‘The Crafty Beeress’,*is reporting on her West Country roadtrip starting with this account of drinking in Bath — one to bookmark if you’re planning to go that way anytime soon.News, Nuggets &#038; Longreads 11 February 2017: Pretzels, Craft and Care Bears originally posted at Boak & Bailey&#039;s Beer Blog